r."

Bonaparte reflected for a few moments. Then shaking his shoulders to rid
himself of his thoughts, he said: "They are fools."

"Who, citizen?" asked Morgan.

"Those who write me such letters--fools, arch fools. Do they take me for
a man who patterns his conduct by the past? Play Monk! What good would
it do? Bring back another Charles II.? No, faith, it is not worth while.
When a man has Toulon, the 13th Vendemiaire, Lodi, Castiglione, Arcola,
Rivoli and the Pyramids behind him, he's no Monk. He has the right to
aspire to more than a duchy of Albemarle, and the command by land and
sea of the forces of his Majesty King Louis XVIII."

"For that reason you are asked to make your own conditions, citizen
First Consul."

Bonaparte started at the sound of that voice as if he had forgotten that
any one was present.

"Not counting," he went on, "that it is a ruined family, a dead branch
of a rotten trunk. The Bourbons have so intermarried with one another
that the race is depraved; Louis XIV. exhausted all its sap, all its
vigor.--You know history, sir?" asked Bonaparte, turning to the young
man.

"Yes, general," he replied; "at least as well as a _ci-devant_ can know
it."

"Well, you must have observed in history, especially in that of France,
that each race has its point of departure, its culmination, and its
decadence. Look at the direct line of the Capets; starting from Hugues
Capet, they attained their highest grandeur in Philippe Auguste and
Louis XI., and fell with Philippe V. and Charles IV. Take the Valois;
starting with Philippe VI., they culminated in Francois I. and fell with
Charles IX. and Henry III. See the Bourbons; starting with Henry IV.,
they have their culminating point in Louis XIV. and fall with Louis
XV. and Louis XVI.--only they fall lower than the others; lower in
debauchery with Louis XV., lower in misfortune with Louis XVI. You talk
to me of the Stuarts, and show me the example of Monk. Will you tell me
who succeeded Charles II.? James II. And who to James II.? William of
Orange, a usurper. Would it not have been better, I ask you, if Monk
had put the crown on his own head? Well, if I was fool enough to restore
Louis XVIII. to the throne, like Charles II. he would have no children,
and, like James II., his brother Charles X. would succeed him, and like
him would be driven out by some William of Orange. No, no! God has not
put the destiny of this great and glorious country we call France in